The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. "Colorado is on pace to see a 25 percent increase in foreclosure filings this year, with 19,460 being filed in the first six months of the year, according to a Colorado Division of Housing report released today. Zachary Urban, administrator of the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline, said there's been no dropoff in hotline activity. 'What concerns us the most, though, is that there is an increasing number of properties going to sale at auction,' Urban said."

"'There are still plenty of adjustable-rate mortgages set to readjust, and there is plenty of inventory on the market. If you can't make your payments, and you need to sell your house, odds are that you won't be able to sell it quickly or easily. That's certainly part of what's driving the foreclosure numbers we're seeing along the Front Range,' said Kathi Williams, director of the Colorado Division of Housing."

The Sun News from New Mexico. "Fewer homes sold in July than a year ago in Las Cruces. Homes, new and previously owned, are still selling at a decent clip in Las Cruces, but certainly not as fast or in the same numbers as years past."

"C.J. Pierce of Steinborn Realty...said, there is a lot less room for error in today's market. Houses will sit 'if you have the wrong price, in the wrong place in a competitive market.'"

"Stacey Melzer has had her house on the market in Las Cruces for more than six months. 'I did not think it would take this long (to sell),' she said."

"'There are a lot of homes on the market giving buyers more to choose from so it's made it more difficult to commit to a purchase,' said Las Cruces real estate agent Karen Trujillo."

"Real estate agent Annette West reported that 173 homes sold in July. That is off significantly from last year's pace. West reported that 246 homes sold in July of 2006. West pointed out that the overall average price is down from $212,921 in July 2006 to $199,872.51 in July 2007."

"Louis Sauceda, owner of the Official Mortgage Team of New Mexico in Las Cruces, said that adjustable-rate mortgages and no-down-payment loans have gone away. 'We're back to mortgage lending 101,' he said. 'People who have good credit and good jobs and incomes can still get loans.'"

The Casa Grande Valley Newspapers from Arizona. "New homes still are being built, though not at the same pace as a year or two ago. '(The boom of 2005 and early 2006) was almost like the perfect storm. It was bound to slow down,' says Rick Miller, director of planning and development for the city of Casa Grande."

"Maricopa has seen the biggest drop-off, recording just 208 sales in July at an average price of under $230,000. That's the lowest for any month in the new city in the last two years. Early 2006 saw two months with sales of more than 500 homes, and the average purchase price during a month was as high as $281,000 in May 2006."

"Figures from the Western Pinal Association of Realtors, which includes home resales in most of western Pinal County, show a similar trend. The most disturbing numbers, especially for anyone thinking of selling a home, are those for average time on the market."

"Also discouraging is the fact that the average sales price on the homes that sold this June was $168,300, but the average price of the homes listed was $217,500. The average sales price was $169,200 for all of 2006, the culmination of a spike in prices for existing homes. The average selling price was $150,100 in 2005 and $112,200 in 2004."

"If you intend to sell an existing home, even if it's the almost-new one you bought just a year or two ago, you'll need patience. Lots of patience. And don't even dream of selling it for the price it would have fetched a couple of years ago - even if you paid that price for it yourself."

The Arizona Daily Star. "Looking on the bright side of the market slowdown is getting tougher for local real estate agents. As financial problems increase for mortgage lenders across the country and lending standards tighten, several Tucson agents said they expect the number of buyers probably will shrink too."

"'The market's really scary right now,' said Pamela Young, an agent for the past 10 years. 'There's a lot of agents who don't even come to the office anymore.'"

"The collapse of Tucson-based First Magnus Financial Corp., formerly the nation's second-largest privately held mortgage lender, is inspiring some particularly strong misgivings in the local market, agents said."

"'I think people are really, really holding off right now, and partially because they don't know if they can get a loan,' said Luke Adams, an agent who deals with a lot of first-time buyers."

"'They have to have a good job, good credit and cash,' said Eric Schrader, owner of Century 21 First American. 'If they have two out of three of those categories, we can still do a deal. The lenders were just giving people loans who had no business getting loans.'"

The Explorer News from Arizona. "For First Magnus employees the news wouldn’t have been such a shock if the company had not announced just days before that everything was OK."

"'We’d been told a week before that our company was fine and we were going to weather the storm and come out even better,' Brian Leahy recalled. 'And a week later, 'Oh, by the way we’re declaring bankruptcy and you don’t have jobs as of tomorrow.' We didn’t think it was going to happen.'"

"Back when houses were selling in record volume and at record prices..the rush was on to get rich, and many sought the bounty of opportunities the mortgage industry promised. 'People used to get dressed up to go to the bank (for a loan),' said Mark Lilly, a broker with Pusch Ridge Home Loans. 'Now you go to a restaurant and the bartender hands you a card and says he’s a (mortgage) broker.'"

"Lilly, who has been in the mortgage and real estate business in Tucson for 25 years, said the rapid increase in property values people experienced in the heat of the housing boom was unprecedented. His customers who had bought homes in Rancho Vistoso were able to double the worth of their investments in less than four years."

"'They made $10,000 in equity every month just sitting there,' Lilly said. But now there are more price reductions than new listings on the MLS, Lilly said."

"The national housing boom, which began roughly around 2001, sent the real estate market into a frenzy. Historically low interest rates only fueled the craze. 'If you fogged a spoon, you didn’t need any money down and you didn’t need any assets (to buy a house),' Lilly said."

"The construction market is already having trouble with an abundance of supply, said Roger Yohem, VP of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association. 'We’re looking at an inventory problem,' Yohem said. 'There’s too much supply out there for demand.'"

"For instance, during the first seven months of 2007, there were 6,368 permits issued for new homes. During that same span in 2007, there were 3,620 new home permits issued, according to numbers from Bright Future Business Consultants."

"'Before the problem with the mortgage problem popped up, the communities were down 40 to 50 percent anyway,' Yohem said."

The Tucson Citizen from Arizona. "Thousands of former employees of First Magnus Financial Corp., which closed Aug. 16, will not get paid before other creditors, a bankruptcy judge said Wednesday."

"'They can stand in line with everyone else,' said Judge James M. Marlar, who is presiding over the case."

"Marlar questioned First Magnus' plans to keep on retainer...members of a Miami law firm handling the bankruptcy case and a consulting firm an estimated $75,000 per month to handle administrative aspects of the process."

"First Magnus Chief Counsel Doug Lemke argued that the in-house lawyers and other staff will ensure that the liquidation is handled by mortgage industry experts. If First Magnus simply drops everything and walks away, the assets, which include thousands of loans that will have to be sold, could lose value before they are sold, he said."

The Gazette Journal from Nevada. "No official Northern Nevada figures for July were available Monday, but Dennis Wilson, president of the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors, said last month's sales and median prices of existing homes are expected to be essentially unchanged from June."

"'A lot of people have pulled their houses off the market. Others are simply waiting,' Wilson said."

"The nationwide median price of an existing home has now fallen every month for a year, not seen in Realtor records in nearly 40 years. That reflects the geographic magnitude of the housing slump, said Brian Kaiser, analyst at the University of Nevada, Reno."

"'It gives you a sense of how widespread this whole market correction has been,' he said. 'We're probably in for another year of declining prices and longer times on the market. This is probably going to stick around for a while. I think most people are hunkered down for the rest of this year and the first half of next year until things shake out.'"

"A couple of years ago, median existing home prices in some areas of Reno were rising 30 percent to 40 percent amid the region's white-hot real estate market. 'It was such a dramatic upswing in prices, it was not sustainable,' Kaiser said."

"And even with the median sales price in Reno falling 12.1 percent in the second quarter of this year from a year earlier, it's not catastrophic, Kaiser said. 'Reno's in a unique position that the rest of its economy is solid.'"

"'My experience with sellers is if you price your home according to the market, the time on market will be less,' Wilson said."